The author of the critically acclaimed The Viral Underclass (one of Kirkus Reviews best books of 2022 ) is back with The Overseer Class, which explores what happens when members of historically minoritized groups are selected for high-visibility positions of power within existing institutions—but under the conditions of a kind of Faustian bargain. Our society places so much weight and attention on those who become the first or only of their identifying group that we miss one of the inherent issues in that model. This book is about the kinds of compromises made by a small but influential group of people from minoritized groups in the United States as they have entered segregated institutions in highly visible positions. People in the overseer class wield enormous institutional power, even necropolitical power over who lives and who dies; it’s just that their power is predicated upon repressing other people who look (or speak/have sex/come from places) like them. The most obvious contemporary overseer is the Black police officer. The Overseer Class begins with this quote from James Baldwin from 1967: “The poor, of whatever color, do not trust the law and certainly have no reason to, and God knows we didn't. ‘If you must call a cop,’ we said in those days, ‘for God's sake, make sure it's a white one.’ We did not feel that the cops were protecting us, for we knew too much about the reasons for the kinds of crimes committed in the ghetto; but we feared black cops even more than white cops, because the black cop had to work so much harder--on your head--to prove to himself and his colleagues that he was not like all the other n******.” But this dynamic does not only exist within law enforcement, it exists in many different spheres and The Overseer Class explores what it looks like in mass media, universities, corporate America, the military, and government. The Overseer Class aims not only to educate us and start this discussion but to provide a framework for challenging that dynamic. It is a weighty topic but one that Dr. Thrasher is well-equipped to handle. “In this blistering follow-up to The Viral Underclass , journalist Thrasher lays siege to the politics of “representation,” wherein members of marginalized groups are given visible positions of authority in powerful institutions. Thrasher argues that such roles are Faustian bargains, as these figures are inevitably called upon to enforce their own oppression or the oppression of others. He labels such figures the “overseer class,” tracing the “deep roots” of representation back to slavery, when Black overseers had to be more cruel than their white counterparts to prove “they were worthy.” Today, Thrasher argues, structural incentives for the marginalized to become overseers have persisted… By turns maddening and inspiring, this shines a harsh light on a political dead end in order to illuminate real possibilities for change.” - Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) Steven Thrasher is always a must-read, and not just when he’s writing for Lit Hub! His follow-up to The Viral Underclass looks at what happens when members of minority groups achieve some kind of institutional power and what can happen when those white-supremacist structures are inhabited by the very people they were designed to oppress. Think Black cops, think Clarence Thomas, and get ready to get mad. - LitHub Reading Steven Thrasher's urgent and incandescent The Overseer Class -- which exposes and explores the myriad instruments and skeletons of multiracial fascism --- reminded me that longing to be as fearless, rigorous, and conscientious as him is like wishing to sing like Stevie or shoot like Steph. Some shit just ain't possible for everyone. Gonna keep trying, though. - Damon Young, author of What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker and Winner of the Thurber Prize in American Humor Oppressive systems need us—to do their bidding, repeat their lies, accept their awards, scold their foes, and mask their machinations with our melanin. But what if we refused to oversee exploitation in exchange for proximity, protection, or prestige? From policing to media, universities to corporate boardrooms, government to the military, The Overseer Class reveals how power requires our complicity. By tracing these dynamics, Steven Thrasher invites us to stop tap dancing for self-interested institutions and start sharing risk, cultivating courage, and fighting for the common good. - Ruha Benjamin, author of Viral Justice and Imagination: A Manifesto The Overseer Class are the gatekeepers, those Black people (and other people of color) who make an agreement with power to do the bidding of white supremacy and to keep the people who “look like them” and to whom they are not responsible, in their place. Where the overseer class are concerned, skinfolk are most definitely not kinfolk and Black faces in high places will be just as, if not more, brutal. Thrasher reminds us that that brutality is a choic